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Before I started a new thread I did perform a search on canisters. I found nothing of relevance to my question, hence the new thread. If you found a thread concerning the availability of canisters along the Pacific coast of the US and Canada, could you kindly post a link?

Are you talking about iso butane canisters? Are you riding Pacific Coast Route while in the US? If so, then Fred's search doesn't appear to be of much help. Hope the thread continues so you can find some useful answers.

From a Leggett, CA to San Diego you'll be able to find a canister every 150 miles or less, most coastal towns have some sort of sporting goods or camping store. I haven't ridden from the CA border to Leggett. I rode in WA and OR as well a few years ago, and my impression is there are plenty of potential sources there as well, but we had a white gas stove that trip, so I'm not 100% sure. Can't tell you anything about north of the border specifically, but I did travel in the Canadian Rockies and across BC with a butane stove and had no trouble sourcing canisters.

I generally carry 2 and start looking to buy when I'm down to 1.

Hope that helps at all - obviously leaves the question open for the more remote sections of your trip.

I haven't ridden all that much of the coast, but did ride a bit of it. Canisters were pretty available everywhere we went in Oregon coast or otherwise.

I can definitively say that when we crossed the US in 2007 that in the middle of the country the WalMarts did not stock the canisters, so if someone tells you that all WalMarts carry them I'd be inclined to doubt whatever they say about it. I know that isn't directly relevant to the coast though.

This may be a bit less relevant yet, but in the Sierras we found them to not be any where near as available as we expected. We wound up using our pop can stove for a a few weeks before we found a canister in Yosemite.

I'd suggest taking a pop can stove just in case. Our pop can stove added less than an ounce to the load since it shares the same pot and windscreen.

Thanks all for the info. I have used canister stoves in all types of mountaineering/climbing adventures in all types of weather and altitudes and didn't want to give up the ease of use and the ability to cook inside the tent in nasty weather. I know that many ultra light types are now going with pop can stoves, but I prefer to use canister stoves if possible.